Bears Roar to Game 7 Victory, Head Back to Calder Cup Finals
This Game 7 between Cleveland and the Hershey Bears had all the makings of a tragedy or at least some emotional deep thoughts. Instead we have these words being used to describe the outcome;
“Unbelievable, Unbelievable,” said Todd Nelson.
“Belief,” from Logan Day.
Garrett Roe said “something with the hockey gods.”
Three straight losses had the Monsters carrying all the momentum into Wednesday night. The Giant Center, at least to me had a weird vibe, it wasn’t excited pregame but yet it wasn’t in panic mode either. There was a nervous energy above the ice.
Cleveland set the tone with the first goal of the game in the first period as Trey Fix-Wolansky walked in on Hunter Shepard to slam it home for the 1-0 lead.
The Bears not only fought back to tie it, but did it quickly with a goal from Logan Day.
Talk about fight, Pierrick Dube has fight. Back on the ice, missing his teeth, talking with lisp and gutting out a performance that won’t be forgotten. There was no question his mind that he wouldn’t play in the Game 7.
“Watching from the stands my teammates losing three straight games,” he said “was one of the worst feeling of my life.” Dube went on “After we loss game six I went into the medical room and said I’m playing.”
Dube gave Hershey the lead just 3:18 into the second as the Bears got their first taste of the power play Dube, snapped a quick wrister upstairs through a screen past Jet Greaves for the lead.
Into the third period Hershey couldn’t find that goal to separate. To the surprise of no one the Monsters rose from the depths.
Every shift Cleveland seemed to gain confidence as they push forward, taking aggressive chances.
Under seven minutes a chill went through the arena. A loose puck inside the dots, Cleveland’s James Malatesta gathered, circled and tied this game at 2-2.
Before overtime Logan Day said after the game the message from all the leaders was “it’s just one shot, just one shot.”
In overtime it was Garrett Row to send this Bears team to their next skate with destiny.
“Someone shot a puck, I don’t know who it is, so give them credit later on. Just hit a defenseman in front, found a little hole,” Roe said describing his game winner. “Found a little hole there, and who ever was with me kind of boxed out, just put it on the glove side and it found a way in.”
Roe, emotional after the game, knows this moment was special and felt his mom with him the entire time.
We give the last word of the night to Todd Nelson.
“Our team set a lot of records this year, We don’t want to be part of a stat that we were up 3-0 in the series and lose four games in a row,” explained Nelson. “It is really scary going to overtime it was a relief,” is how Nelson described his emotions when the goal went in.
“After that I got smothered by my assistant coaches so I couldn’t even enjoy it.”
Enjoy this Bears fans. Your team is back in the final Friday night against Coachella Valley.
